Half of La Liga teams are in relegation fight with two rounds left

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Half of La Liga teams are in relegation fight with two rounds left

2026-05-17 00:31 Last Updated At：00:41

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — With the La Liga title clinched by Barcelona and Champions League berths decided, the remaining drama is in a multi-team fight to avoid relegation.

Last-placed Real Oviedo is already doomed. But, incredibly, no other team in the entire bottom half of the 20-team league is mathematically saved from relegation with two rounds left. Two other teams will also go down.

With just six points left in play, only five points separate Rayo Vallecano in 10th place from Mallorca and Levante in 18th and 19th and in the relegation zone.

All the games of Round 37 will be played simultaneously on Sunday.

The biggest survival contest of the day will be Mallorca’s visit to Levante. A victory will likely lift the winner out of the drop zone, while a defeat will keep the loser in danger before next weekend’s final round.

Elche is level on points with Mallorca and Levante and it hosts an already saved Getafe.

Alaves, in 16th and just one point above the drop, visits the relegated Oviedo, while Girona, also one point above the drop, is at Atletico Madrid.

Osasuna and Espanyol, in 13th and 14th, clash in Pamplona with both just three points above the relegation zone.

Sevilla, up in 12th but still only four points from the drop, hosts Real Madrid. Valencia, in 11th, is level on points with Sevilla before visiting Real Sociedad. Rayo hosts Villarreal.

Mallorca striker Vedat Muriqi has 22 goals this season, only two fewer than Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé, but that has still not been enough to keep his team away from the bottom of the table. Coach Martín Demichelis will again turn to his striker to lead the team against Levante.

Antoine Griezmann, the all-time leading scorer for Atletico, will play his last home game before he joins Orlando City in Major League Soccer next season.

It will also be Robert Lewandowski’s last game at Camp Nou when Barcelona hosts Real Betis. The club announced the 37-year-old striker is leaving after four seasons.

Barcelona forward Lamine Yamal is out for the remainder of the season, as are Madrid players Rodrygo, Éder Militão and Arda Guler.

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Man City beats Chelsea 1-0 in FA Cup final after audacious Antoine Semenyo goal

LONDON (AP) — In its 155-year history the FA Cup final can rarely have been won by a more audacious goal.

Manchester City beat Chelsea 1-0 at Wembley Stadium on Saturday thanks to a moment of magic from Antoine Semenyo.

The forward brought to life a final that had produced little in the way of chances or excitement with a spectacular back-heeled goal in the second half.

Running onto a cross from Erling Haaland in the 72nd minute, Semenyo flicked his heel at the ball and directed it low into the far corner past diving Chelsea goalkeeper Robert Sanchez.

Victory kept City in the hunt for a domestic trophy treble, having already won the English League Cup. Pep Guardiola’s team is also second in the Premier League, two points behind Arsenal with two rounds to go.

This was Guardiola’s 17th major trophy in 10 years at City and his 35th in his career overall.

City has won the Cup eight times and moved level with Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham as equal third on the all-time winners' list.

Defeat means Chelsea will end the season trophyless — a year after being crowned Club World Cup champion — in what has been a crisis-ridden campaign.

After firing two coaches since the turn of the year, Chelsea went into the final with a novice on the sideline in Calum McFarlane, a former youth coach taking charge of only his seventh first team game.

The turmoil at Chelsea led to supporters staging a protest against its American owners outside the stadium before kickoff.

In that sense it was commendable that McFarlane was able to frustrate Guardiola for such long periods.

That was until Semenyo's match-winning moment.

The Ghana international joined City from Bournemouth only in January and made an immediate impact — scoring 10 goals and helping the team to two trophies.

After the final whistle City fans sang the club anthem “Blue Moon” loudly, and cheering Bernardo Silva and John Stones as they lifted the famous trophy. Both players are leaving at the end of the season.

“Since I arrived it’s been 20 trophies, which isn’t bad. I care a lot about Manchester City," said Bernardo, counting Community Shield victories as well.

Triumph for City came after back-to-back losses in the final in the previous two years. This was the record fourth year in a row it reached the final, having last won it in 2023.

Arsenal has won soccer's oldest knockout competition a record 14 times. Manchester United was second with 13.

AP soccer: https://apnews.com/hub/soccer